LETTER TO LORD CLARENDON. 395 



speculations entered into during his absence, I have such implicit confidence 

 in the tenacity of purpose, undying resolution, and Herculean power of 

 Livingstone, that however he may be delayed, I hold stoutly to the opinion 

 that he will overcome every obstacle, and will, as I have suggested, emerge 

 from South Africa on the same western shore on which he appeared after his 

 first great march across that region, and long after his life had been despaired 

 of." 



. Sir Roderick Murchison was partly right once more. Livingstone was 

 not on his way home, nor thinking of it; for on the 24th of October, 1869, a 

 telegram was received in this country, to the effect that Dr. Kirk had received 

 a letter from him, dated July 8th, 1868, from Lake Bangweolo, in which he 

 said, "I have found the source of the Nile between 10° and 12" south." 

 The great traveller wrote in good health and spirits, and it was cheering at 

 the same time to be told that a caravan which had recently arrived at Zanzibar, 

 reported him at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, and that the road between Zan- 

 zibar and Ujiji was open. 



The letter was addressed to Lord Clarendon, and was dated from Near 

 Lake Bangweolo, South Central Africa, July, 1868. We give the following 

 extracts: — "When I had the honour of writing to you in February, 1867, I 

 had the impression that I was then on the watershed of the Zambesi, and either 

 the Congo or the Nile. More extended observation has since convinced me of 

 the essential correctness of that impression ; and from what I have seen, 

 together with what I have learned from intelligent natives, I think that I may 

 safely assert that the chief sources of the Nile arise between 10° and 12° 

 south latitude, or nearly in the position assigned to them by Ptolemy, 

 whose river Raptita is probably the Rovuma. Aware that others have been 

 mistaken, and laying no claim to infallibility, I do not speak very positively, 

 particularly of the parts west and north-west of Tanganyika, because these 

 have not yet come under my observation ; but if your lordship will read the 

 following short sketch of my discoveries, you will perceive that the springs of 

 the Nile have hitherto been searched for very much too far north. They rise 

 about 400 miles south of the most southerly portion of Victoria Nyanza, and, 

 indeed, south of all the lakes except Bangweolo. Leaving the valley of the 

 Loano-wa, which enters the Zambesi at Zumbo, we climbed up what seemed to 

 be a great mountain mass, but it turned out to be only the southern edge of an 

 elevated region, which is from 3,000 to 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. 

 This upland may roughly be said to cover a space south of Lake Tanganyika 

 of some 350 square miles. It is generally covered with dense or open forest ; 

 has an undulating, sometimes hilly surface ; a rich soil ; is well-watered by 

 numerous rivulets ; and, for Africa, is cold. It slopes towards the north and 

 west ; but I have found no part of it under 300 feet of altitude. The country 

 of Usango, situated east of the space indicated, is also an upland, and affords 



